Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-04-22
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SILK COLONY.

30 at last, as always, though constantly
working and thinking for others, calmness of
soul came to Shirley.
Was her heart broken! Well, there was
much left in life still
1t was her hard fate to be tied in this one
little village. Linwood it was to be, for good
or i'll. She recognized her fate and made the
best of it, At length she became more
warmly Interested than she could have be
lievod in things about her.
The village Improvement scheme was only
a part of her labt~ From long habit of
thought her mind still followed the old ideals
of her unwrtten poem. She found no calm,
no time yet to begin the poem 1t must be
put off still again. But meantime, following
the one golden thread of thought, she uncon-
sciously turned to women.
During the fever Shirley had found among
the villagers poverty and an unhappness
that surprised her. Persons who have the
sense of responsibility, however small. in
Stinctively put the best foot forward. Behind
many Il neat street garb a hungry stomach
sits and bowls in secret
The spectcr of sickness attacked the house
holds and shook out the hidden specters in
plain sight Shirley perceived constantly a
barrenness of the commonest small comforts,
full to her 1t was the case alike among the
overworked farm wives and the idle gadding
village wives. Poverty she herself knew, she
thought. But it was that independent pov-
erty which has fertility of resource, the pov-
erty which whets the edge of struggle and
aspiration. From this kind of poverty every
thing that is worth having in the world has
come
Rr,t thnc Tlo
small things which Shirley thought a civil
lied human being regarded as necessities of
life were to them unknown luxuries. In
such hard, stupid poverty as this, what
hope?
Could nothing be done to help them? The
question haunted Shirley. Could they not
somehow be put in the way of helping them
selves' Verify there was little that they
might even hope for. An unframed grown
woman i'll a village can do nothing to get
money Although there was among them
lack of so many of the small things that make
life desirable, yea, absolute want now and
then, these women had no lack of time on
their hands, 1t was the habit of many OF
them, women and girls, to sit and gaze idly
out the window, hour after hour. A little
spasmodic intermittent effort finished the
rest, nothing. They had no knowledge OF
anything better and no incentive to action
That was all there was in life for them. They
had even no appreciation that it was sin tc
waste time SO. Their idleness and poverty
brought with it poverty of soul that wa,
most hopeless of all.
1t was at this period that public attention
was first being generally called to the beauti
full silk weaving industry in this country
Shirley herself had isited the mills, and beer
delighted as anybody must be with the ex
| qu.,ite fabrics wrought there
The workmen showed her the flmy, shining
threads from which the splendid fabrics wer,
made. These had all to be brought over seas
| they told her. 1t was certain the mulberry
tree could be reared here at home, and tn,
silk cocoons produced. The production o
raw silk was an industry scarcely less beauti
full than that of weaving the threads, and re
muneratve too. 1t was not done in Americ;
| simply because it was not done.
One day, thinking of the idle, yet povert,
stricken women she knew, Shirley happened
to recall what she had heard in the silk mills
She put the two together.
Once more, processes are dull to outsiders
Therefore again we skip them. There
enough dulmess in this world, Lord knows
even after we get rid of all we can.
No, we will have only results, for the pres
emit The women'S silk colony of Lin
| wOod-bchold--is it not known to ever
intelligent person in the land: An intell
gent person is one who reads newspapers
Shirley obtained all the information pos
sible She planted her mulberry shoots, sh
got her cocoous and learned how to take car
of them. Travellers on the now much fro
quented road past the stone house to the vi
lage turned to watch again the noble figllr
and bent head of the woman who was so il
tently busy in the grounds Out there anon
her silk tree, she might well have been take
for the reincarnation of the splendid empires
who first introduced silk culture among he
grateful people and thence gave it to th
world.
Silk culture would have prospered i
America more than POO years ago. only thi
tobacco rooted II out. 1t did not do SO
Lnwood. Shirley experimental with h,
nulherries and silk worms till she was su
cessful She taught the secret to the ncigl
} Dor women. The new and graceful emplo.
ment spread among them. At length Il
colony produced annually no inconsiderab
quantity of raw silk of an admirable qualit
, The women and children did the work.
brought hundreds Of dollars to the poo
: stingy little neighborhood. Weed patch
became mulberry gardens, In truth, the
5 was by and by not IA weed left in that rcgio
Linwood became prosperous, handsome al
7 ambitious Articles OF taste, beauty ~
. comfort were added yearly to the Aunh
l homes The hard. poverty stricken lives
4 the women hlo,somed out till they BEGAN
: new creatures under the ma%i" OF prosperit
t They learned how admirable a thing it is f
@ a human being to earn his own money al
i spend it II, he pcases. They tasted the swec
= of Independence.
j The village women soughed or the id
ness of their wasted lives, In the round
i healthy, happy, paid work they forgot t.
= idle tallee-ialkeo Of other years, They OF
: grew the spite, the narrow feminine jci
Z ousies TheY cnulh no longer spend On